FRISCH (pole vault), CALDWELL (triple jump) Break Own Indoor Records
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – On Friday and Saturday, part of the Eastern Connecticut State University men's and women's track & field squad tested themselves at the Harvard University Invitational at the Gordon Indoor Track. Eastern enjoyed another great opportunity to stack up against Division I teams from across New England. On Friday, all of the men's events took place, while the women competed on Saturday.
+ The Warriors had two entrants in the men's 400-meter dash, with
Amadeus Bonilla (Newport News, VA) and
Jakeem Wilson (Sterling) both competing. Bonilla ran the event in 53.85 seconds, finishing 46th in a stacked field. Wilson ran his opening 200m in 23.84 seconds but did not finish.
+ First-year athlete
Hagen Drake (Stonington) ran 8.71 in the preliminaries of the 60-meter hurdles, beating several Division I opponents to finish 25th overall, but did not qualify for finals.
+ Finishing directly in the middle of a very competitive field was
Jeremy Peacock (Bolton) who ran the 200m. His time of 23.27 earned him 40th overall.
+ The only representative of the distance squad was
Zachary D'Andrea (Wallingford), who competed in the 800m. He dipped under the 2-minute barrier, using his kick to run 1:59.52 for 11th overall.
+ In the shot put, Eastern entered
Andrew Johnson (Portland) and
Mark Boudreau (Oxford) and both athletes finished in the top half of the field. On his third throw, Johnson reached a mark of 14.42m (47-3.75) and qualified for finals. He would not beat this mark in his final three attempts, finishing eighth overall. After a fault on his first throw, Boudreau had his best of the day with his second throw of 13.39m (43-11.25), finishing 15th.
+ The 4x400m relay team of Drake, Wilson, D'Andrea, and Bonilla finished fifth out of 12 (two teams did not finish), running 3:30.85.
+ The only Eastern athlete on the track on Saturday was
Emely Melendez (Nashua, NH) who was entered in the 800m dash. She impressed with a personal best of 2:24.27 for 14th out of 59.
+ In the weight throw,
Anaka Eaton (Coventry) narrowly missed out on finals, but was able to finish 11th overall with her second throw of 14.58m (47-10). This mark was just 0.13 meters off of the top nine.
+ National competitor
Givanni Perry (Hartford) finished third out of 44 in the long jump, using her very first jump of 5.47m (17-11.5) to carry her through the competition. Perry nearly beat this jump on her final attempt but was 0.03 meters off.
+ In the triple jump,
Laci Davis (Prospect) reached 10.90m (35-9.25) to finish seventh overall. In the championship section of this event, first-year athlete
Casondra Caldwell (Bridgeport) qualified for finals, and used her last jump of the competition to land her in sixth place. She jumped 11.39m (37-4.5) on this attempt, breaking her own program indoor record of 37-3 set Jan. 17 in a third-place finish at the University of Rhode Island. The jump left her just shy of the overall record of 37-5 3/4 set by Savonnah Artis during the 2015 outdoor season.
+ In the pole vault, outdoor All-America
Natasha Frisch (Mendota Heights, MN) (also concurrently competing with the Eastern swim team) cleared a program indoor record 3.65 meters (11-11.75) on her second attempt, and finished the competition in 11th place. Frisch had set the previous record of 11-7 3/4 in winning last year's Little East Conference Championships. Frish owns the overall pole vault record of 13-0 1/4 set outdoors at last year's New England Open.
The Warriors return to action Friday and Saturday, when two separate meets are on the schedule. On Friday, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Invitational will take place, along with the first day of the River Hawk Invitational. The Coast Guard meet is at Gregory Field House in New London, and the River Hawk Invitational will be hosted by UMass Lowell at the TRACK at New Balance in Boston, MA. Saturday will mark Day 2 of the River Hawk Invitational.
